Design Thinking E Design

Most of us are aware that there are comapanies called “Ferrari” , “Lamborghini”, “BMW”, ” Audi”, “Mercedez Benz”, “Hyundai” and so many well-known car producer around the world. However, if you hear the word “Pagani”, will you be able to match a picture with a car? I doupt so because unless you are a car enthusiasts, this word “Pagani” is rather unheard of.

So, What is Pagani?

Pagani Automobili S.p.A. is an Italian manufacturer of sports cars and carbon fibre. The company was founded in 1992 by the Argentinian Horacio Pagani, and is based in San Cesario sul Panaro, near Modena, Italy.

Horacio Pagani, who formerly managed Lamborghini’s composites, founded Pagani Composite Research in 1988. This new company worked with Lamborghini on numerous projects, including the restyling of the 25th Anniversary Countach, the Lamborghini LM002, the P140 design concept, and the Diablo. In the late 1980s, Pagani began designing his own car, then referred to as the “C8 Project”. Pagani planned to rename the C8 the “Fangio F1” to honour his friend, the five-time Argentinian Formula One champion Juan Manuel Fangio.

So, why am I introducing about this Pagani, rather than choosing Laborghini, Ferrari, and many other manufacturers? It is because their designs are much more sophisticated, and most importantly it has a feature that other companies, were unable to apply in  different way like Pagani did, the Spoiler. I am not saying that other manufacturers’ cars have crappy designs but I am saying that Pagani invest much more time on designing, and rather than mass producing, but to build a car that is engineering marvel and a work of art at the same time. Aiming to create a car that is considered a masterpiece that is perfect, this man of perfection has no constraint on time.

What is so special about Pagani, Huayra?

Amonst so many special features about this car such as equipping with Boshis ESP electronic stability program, its powerful engine, as an Aerospace Engineering student, I would like to focus more about its Aerodynamic “Flaps” and its body shape.

To begin with, Huarya’s body was first designed to resemble a wing of an aircraft. A high performance car must maximize downforce but also minimize the drag. With the design that resembles the wing of an aircraft, Huayra was able to acheive this criteria without facing any problem.

However, with extremely powerful engine, it has to have a system to control the power. Hence, Pagani came up with this idea of having spoiler on a car. He was first inspired by the flaps of an aircraft. Many Sports car do have a spoiler at the back. However, it interrupts the aerodynamics of the car when they are not needed at low speed. After some time rethinking about the design, they came up with this solution of a full 4 independent retractable aerodynamic “flaps” that come into action only when they are needed. These four flaps helps to increase the downward force, giving extra grips, helps to act as a braking system. How does it work? Being independent allowed this flaps to be used at different situation. For example, when the driver applies brake, the flaps automatically rises to increase surface area and drag, disrupting the aerodynamics of the car.

One of the most important use of the flaps is when the car is turning a curve at a high speed. At a high speed making a  curve, a car tends to have upward force at the inner body resulting a roll. However, with these four automatic independent flaps, they were able to reduce the chance to roll by couteracting to create even greater downward force by the inner flaps. By doing so, these flaps were able to reduce the chances of having a roll and hence it is much safer but at the same time faster since the driver do not need to reduce speed at a corner.

Ultimately, Pagani convinced me that they are one of the best car manufacturer since they are the perfect example of the philosophy of art and engineering. Not only did they use the most advanced technology, without compromising the beauty of designing world, it is one of the design that everyone would crave for. I would say Pagani, Huayra is an extremely rare piece of mechanical art, part aeroplane, part car, a unique piece of engineering design.

Reference:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pagani

http://www.pagani.com/it/huayra/default.aspx

http://www.topgear.com/uk/car-news/How-the-Pagani-Huayra-is-made-2012-03-12?module=best&utm_expid=12261766-9.n3UKns_sT6uGHKlagvv2qg.1&utm_referrer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.topgear.com%2Fuk%2Ftags%2FPagani-Huayra

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 15th, 2013 at 11:08 pm and is filed under Design application. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.